A Russian anti-corruption activist has been attacked by a group of men who shot him in the mouth with a stun gun. Albert Pchelintsev is the head of “Against Corruption, Lies and Dishonour,” a group which investigates corruption by officials working in the local government of Khimki. According to colleagues, Pchelintsev has repeatedly received threatening phone calls with promises to “have his tongue cut off” and “his mouth gagged”. Read more here
Andrei Kulagin, a Russian human rights activist, has been found dead in a quarry on the outskirst of Petrozavodsk more than two months after he went missing. Kulagin was the branch head of the rights organisation Spravedlivost (Justice) in Karelia, 600 miles north of Moscow. He was last seen alive on 14 May. “There is no doubt that he was murdered,” said the orgnaisations director.
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A group of British academics including the historian Orlando Figes and the poet and translator Robert Chandler have spoken out after authorities in Russia closed down a website dealing with the country’s controversial Soviet past. Read more here
Yacheslav Yaroshenko, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Korruptsiya i Prestupnost (Corruption and Crime) died yesterday after sustaining head wounds in an attack in April.
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